BUCK, Samuel (1694?-1779) — London
Artist & draughtsman; etcher & engraver; publisher. Produced The perspective and ichnography of the town of Sunderland 1723; An exact plat-form of the redoubts forts & fortifications which were about the town of Newark upon Trent in Nottinghamshire when it was unhappily besieged the 6th day of March 1644/5 1725. Produced over 500 topographical plates, including the well-known five sheet panorama of London 1749, Buck’s original drawing for which survives in the BM.
Reportedly born in Richmond, Yorkshire, the son of William Buck, although the Samuel Buck, son of William, baptised 7 Dec 1694 at Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, is perhaps a more plausible alternative. The elder brother of Nathaniel Buck (1702?-1773), with whom he worked throughout most of his career — it is noteworthy that the Samuel Buck of Stockton-on-Tees had a brother of this name baptised there 9 Apr 1702. Recommended as an artist to John Warburton (see BME 2011) by the antiquary Ralph Thoresby in 1719, Buck then providing sketches for Warburton’s intended book on Yorkshire. He published proposals for large prospects of Leeds and Wakefield in 1720, adding York in 1721, the first in an extended series of similar views. There were further proposals for views of Durham, Stockton, and Sunderland issued from his father’s house in Durham in 1722, the two former “three foot in length, and eighteen inches in depth”, the last a little larger (Newcastle Courant, 3 Nov 1722). The same advertisement offered the painting of portraits. His prospect of Newcastle was advertised as being available in Newcastle in Apr 1724 (Newcastle Courant, 4 Apr 1724). Sets of prints of abbeys and castles in the north of England were available from “Mr. William Buck’s in Durham” in 1729 (Newcastle Courant, 21 Jun 1729). Moving to London, he issued successive proposals for sets of views of various parts of the country. He worked with fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, on occasion travelling with and assisting William Stukeley (see BME 2011). In Nov 1726, he announced a more systematic survey of the whole country. Subscribed to Francis Peck, ‘Desiderata curiosa : or, a collection of divers scarce and curious pieces (relating chiefly to matters of English history)’ 1732-1735, for two copies of Kellom Tomlinson, ‘The art of dancing explained by reading and figures’ 1735, and Francis Blomefield, ‘An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk’ 1745. He married Catherine Faussett at Lincoln’s Inn Chapel 20 Apr 1727 — she was perhaps the Catherine Buck who was buried at St. Giles in the Fields 23 Dec 1732. Over the following years, the Buck brothers toured the country annually each summer making sketches of antiquities, etc., which were engraved through the winter and published each spring from 1726 to 1743. From 1728 to 1753 the brothers also produced prospects and perspective views of the principal “cities, sea-ports, and capital towns”. With the completion of the set, Buck advertised drawing and painting classes, and in 1755 advertised the display and sale of his drawings and paintings, the price fixed upon each (Public Advertiser, 25 Oct 1755), adding cleaning and mending of pictures in 1757. In 1773, the brothers announced their plans to retire from trade, and offered for sale complete sets of their engravings, individual prints, the original drawings (as a set) and the original printing plates and also their chambers (London Gazette, 23-27 Mar 1773). Following the death of his brother in 1773 and in accordance with provisions in his brother’s will for the support of his widow, Rebecca Lane, whom he had married in 1754, their plates were acquired by Robert Sayer (see BME 2011) for the sum of £400, Sayer then reissuing them in three volumes priced at eighteen guineas. Buck was reduced to poverty in old age, depending on support from the antiquary Richard Gough, although he exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere as late as 1775. He died said to be aged eighty-three 17 Aug 1779 and was buried at St. Clement Danes. Large numbers of the brothers’ preparatory drawings, by themselves or by artists employed by them, survive in public collections. “Collectively their engravings constitute a national survey of ruins of the period, and provide us with an indispensable record of what English and Welsh towns looked like before the industrial revolution” (Ralph Hyde in ODNB).
At the Ship in St. Paul’s Church-yard — 1721
At his father’s house, near Elvet Bridge, Durham — 1722
White Swan, Brownlow Street, off High Holborn — 1724
Golden Buck, Warwick Street, near Golden Square — 1726-1730
Golden Buck, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury — 1731-1735
Chambers on the third staircase, 1 Garden Court, Middle Temple — 1735-1773
— and at Mrs. Buck’s at the Queen’s Head in Holbourn, near Hatton Garden — 1749-1751
— at the Green Canister by the Crown & Anchor Tavern near St. Clement’s Church in the Strand — 1754-1760
At Mr. Cahusac’s, 203 Strand, opposite St. Clement’s Church, Strand — 1774-1775
Adams. Alexander. BBTI. BM. BNA. Clayton. Grant. Graves (1901) (1905) (1907). Ralph Hyde, ‘A prospect of Britain : the town panoramas of Samuel and Nathaniel Buck’ 1994. LHD. LMA. Maxted. NA. ODNB. Strutt. Tooley. Torbert.
